SKALD: Against the Black Priory Preview - Page 2
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And when you pair that with the game's item descriptions that go a few steps beyond merely functional and tell you just what kind of sword you're looking at, or what the armor you're about to buy is made of, you get that special sense of immersion completely absent from most modern games.
And it's that much more impressive when you remember that it was mostly just one guy doing all the work here. A lot of love and effort clearly went into this project, and it shows.
What Would You Say You Do Here?
So, having gone over what the game is trying to be, let's take a look at how it actually plays in its current, pre-EA state.
The currently available Prologue offers a few hours of gameplay, a tutorial section, and a handful of early areas to explore.
The main quest tasks you with fetching your childhood friend of noble birth from a remote island where she intends to find some answers regarding her burgeoning magical abilities. Upon chartering a ship and hiring a crew of mercenaries, you set sail for the isle of Idra, but right as you're about to reach it, a Kraken-type creature sinks your boat and kills most of your crew in the process.
Once you get your bearings, you discover that the island isn't doing too hot either. Its wildlife has turned vicious and feral, ancient glyphs and songs long-thought of as superstition are suddenly acting very ominous, oh, and the island's main settlement recently got pillaged by a bunch of insane fishermen who keep babbling about various entities as mysterious as they are nefarious.
With no clear way of getting back, you do your best to survive alongside a few of the island's still relatively sane residents, while desperately trying to find some leads for your main quest.
This is pretty much the extent of the Prologue's content, but already, SKALD's story elements are shaping up nicely. The game does a great job of combining a gritty fantasy setting with some very much Lovecraftian elements. It also deftly introduces its worldbuilding without excessive exposition and has a few tricks up its sleeve to make the world feel more real.
Having played through the Prologue, and the earlier demos that featured a different section of the game, I can't wait to find out where it all goes.
If there's one thing to complain about when it comes to the game's story and writing, though, it's some of the dialogue options you're presented with. Basically, at times it can feel like you're playing as a Game of Thrones character who somehow managed to stumble into The Lord of the Rings. When the rest of the game goes for a certain, almost dreamy, atmosphere, your random bouts of swearing really stick out.
Story aside, the game is structured in a way that should be familiar to any RPG enthusiast - you have an overworld map peppered with various settlements, dungeons, and other points of interest. You explore those to move the story along or to find some cool loot. And while the overworld map will be throwing some random encounters at you every once in a while, the actual locations will offer you plenty of hand-placed encounters.
All of this is fueled by a custom roleplaying system with its roots firmly planted in D&D, but with plenty of unique spins to it.
At the moment, you have four classes to choose from, representing the traditional Fighter, Cleric, Rogue, and Wizard archetypes, but even these aren't quite finished yet. While the more unique classes - the Skald and the Captain - are yet to be introduced.
Each of the classes has access to a total of five attributes and a number of skills then derived from those. Wizards and Clerics also have access to some spells. Since the Prologue is pretty limited in scope, I can't be certain, but to the best of my understanding, the game's spellcasting system resembles that of Dungeons & Dragons Online most, where you have spell slots, but also a "mana" resource you use to cast them between rests.
A little bit of "mana" (and health) is restored after each battle, representing a short rest, but to get it all back, you need a proper long rest, though at present it's impossible to tell just how limited your rations and resting opportunities are going to be.
Upon leveling up, each character gets some points that can be used to buy a new feat. And while everyone gets the same options, depending on your character's class, some feats will cost more points and others less.
